Schauinsland

We woke to the sound of rain.  It looked fairly overcast outside for a while.  But a little fall of rain was not going to confine us to our hotel room.

Today we ventured a bit further beyond the built-in areas of Freiburg.  We caught the tram, then the bus and lastly the cable car to Schauinsland.  By the way, the cable car to the Schauinsland peak is Germany’s longest cable car ride.  Whilst we did not go deep into the Black Forest (Schwarzwald), we were in the fringes.  The pine trees were huge and magnificent.  The forest was dense, dark and foreboding but beautiful.

About one third the way up.  The little red roof in the background is the cable car shed.

It is easy to imagine the Brothers Grimm writing stories of trolls, gnomes, fairies and witches living in the Black Forest.  We even saw a ‘herd’ of wild deer.

Once upon a time in a dark forest lived….

When we reached to top of Schauinsland, we had morning tea in the cafe.  A nice coffee, a ginger-lemonade and baked cheesecake.  We had hoped to have a Black Forest cake option given the locality.  Unfortunately, it was not to be!

After, morning tea we went for a bit of a stroll.  The views were spectacular!  The views were similar but different to those from Mont Blanc. 

Rolling hills…

We kept looking for Julie Andrews!

And mountain valleys.

We made our way back to Freiburg after enjoying the mountain air.  There were only a handful of folks outa and about in the morning but when we returned the town was packed with tourists, markets and, of course, it’s Saturday night!  We saw one Hen’s Party group and we saw a couple of Bier Bikes!

A Bier Bike!

I think Karen is getting tired of seeing me in the same clothes.

By the way, I tried to include the name Schauinsland as often as possible… just so you could struggle with possible pronunciations.  We’re still not sure how to say it!